Part IV: iPhoto Stunts

12.2. Extra Credit: Self-Playing Slideshows

As you work on your DVD menu structure, iDVD builds a handy map behind the scenes. You can't add to it or drag or delete any elements you see there, but you can doubleclick one of the icons to open the corresponding menu, movie, or slideshow.

To view the map, just click the Map button at the bottom of the main iDVD window (see Figure 12-9). The element you were working on appears with colored highlighting. (Click the Map button again to return to the menu screen you were working on.)

But the map is more than just a pretty navigational aid. It also makes possible a self-playing slideshow, one that plays automatically when the DVD is inserted, before your viewers even touch their remote controls.

Once you've got the Photos list open in the Customize drawer , as shown in Figure 12-9, you can also drag an entire iPhoto album onto the AutoPlay icon. Alternatively, in the Customize panel, you can click and -click just the photos you want, and then drag them en masse onto the AutoPlay icon. In fact, you can even drag photosas a group or in a folderright out of the Finder and onto this icon.

Figure 12-9. The Map view is most useful when you're creating a complex DVD with nested menu screens, like one you might rent from Blockbuster.
But for slideshow purposes, its most useful feature is the AutoPlay icon. Any pictures or albums you drag onto this tile begin to play automatically when you insert the DVD into a DVD playerno remote-control fussing required.

To control how long your still image remains on the screen, or how quickly your Autoplay slideshow plays, double-click the AutoPlay tile. You arrive at the slideshow editor shown in Figure 12-6, where you can adjust the timing, transition, and even the audio that plays behind the pictures.

If you decide to replace your autoplay material, just drag new stuff right onto it. Or, to eliminate the autoplay segment, drag it right off the Autoplay tile. It disappears in a little puff of Mac OS X cartoon smoke.

You can design a project that way for the benefit of, for example, technophobic DVD novices whose pupils dilate just contemplating using a remote control. They can just insert your autoplay-only DVD and sit back on the couch as the pictures flash by automatically.

It's even possible to create a DVD that never even gets to the menu screena DVD consisting only of autoplay material, a slideshow that repeats endlessly during, say, your cocktail reception . Just highlight the autoplay tile and then choose Advanced Loop Slideshow. Youve got yourself a self-running, self-repeating slideshow of digital photos that plays on a TV at a party or wedding reception. The DVD will loop endlesslyor at least until it occurs to someone in your audience to press the Menu or Title button on the remote. The Menu button redisplays the previous menu screen; the Title button causes a return to the main menu.

---

Tip: If you have trouble burning an iPhoto DVD, you're not alone. Most people have no problems, but a few run into baffling glitches like an endless pause during the burning process at "Stage 3: Encoding Assets."If you visit the iPhoto 5 discussion area at http://discussions. info .apple.com and search for "iDVD slideshows," you'll discover that many people wind up solving their problems by following one of these steps. First, visit the Energy Saver panel of System Preferences and make sure that your Mac is not set to go to sleep. Second, consider buying only name -brand blank DVDs (iMation or Verbatim, for example). Third, open Disk Utility (in your Applications Utilities folder), click your hard drives name, and click Repair Permissions. Short of sacrificing a small mammal to the technology gods, those options are your best bets for success.

---